Here's something I could probably figure out if I spent some time on it but I'm busy today so maybe one of you can help. Last night, Jon Stewart did an extraordinary Daily Show in two acts. Act One was him commenting on the Trump verdict. Act Two was an interview with former Republican congressman Ken Buck. I'm embedding the YouTube versions of these two segments here.
If you didn't catch the show, I recommend taking the time to watch these two segments and if you did watch the show, you might want to watch them again. Furthermore, if you only have time to watch one of 'em, I suggest you watch the second. It was a fascinating conversation, the kind that Mr. Stewart does so well and no one else does at all: Two people who respect each other having a conversation with no talking points, no obvious questions, no insults — just two men discussing topics on which they differ with no histrionics. [SPOILER ALERT: They find out they don't differ as much as at least one of them thought going in.]
These versions are shorter than what aired last night on Comedy Central. For the first segment, they edited down the intro and Jon's throw to commercial and on YouTube, it runs 18:01. For the second segment, they trimmed Jon introducing his guest and the throw to commercial and it runs 24:24. That's 42 minutes and 25 seconds total. I didn't notice if either YouTube video contained content I didn't see last night…
…but watching them both still doesn't give you the entire show. It doesn't include the commercials and an additional 2-3 minute segment Stewart did with Ronny Chieng, who's hosting the rest of the week. I watched the show live last night and saw the whole thing…I think.
This morning, I decided to watch the show again and I turned on my Roku TV on which I get Comedy Central shows via the streaming service You Tube TV. It gave me my choice of three versions…
- A 36 minute one that literally cuts off during the Ken Buck interview…
- A 46 minute one that seems to have the entire show I saw last night but I'm not sure or…
- A one-hour and one-minute version that I don't have time to watch today and it won't allow me to fast-forward through to see what's in it.
I don't get this. I don't get this at all. Why are there three versions of this show? And even if you don't have the answer, make sure you watch what I've embedded above, especially the second segment.